Surgical robot performs world-first autonomous laparoscopic procedure:
Known as the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), the robotic-arm-equipped device was designed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
[...] In the more recent experiments, an improved and more autonomous version of STAR successfully performed the procedure laparoscopically – this means that only small incisions were required for the entry and exit of the surgical tools. What's more, the robot did so four times (on four pigs), producing "significantly better results than humans performing the same procedure."
Intestinal anastomosis is said to be a particularly tricky operation, as it requires multiple sutures to be made in soft tissue with a consistently high rate of precision. If any of the sutures are misplaced, intestinal leakage may occur, which can have very serious consequences for the patient.
Among the new features on this version of STAR are specialized suturing tools, better imaging systems (which include a 3D endoscope) and perhaps most notably, an autonomous control system. The latter adapts the surgical plan in real time, based on the often unpredictable movements of the soft intestinal tissue.
Journal Reference:
H. Saeidi, J. D. Opfermann, M. Kam, et al. Autonomous robotic laparoscopic surgery for intestinal anastomosis, Science Robotics (DOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abj2908)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 30 2022, @08:20AM (1 child)
Does this have anything to do with the earlier Whale throat plug article? Because, if it does, you could have just posted both together. Just saying.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 30 2022, @12:02PM
OhMyGosh, someone got a whale stuck in their throat again? I'm not going to ask how THAT happened. Sheesh. What's this world coming to?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 30 2022, @10:09AM (1 child)
Can we get a link to the Hidden aristarchus journal? Everyone is talking about it, but I can't find it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 30 2022, @12:04PM
If you could find it, it wouldn't be hidden, now would it?
Oh, you mean this [soylentnews.org] one?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 30 2022, @11:39AM
It will probably perform a surprise surgery on a parked truck
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 30 2022, @04:03PM (2 children)
Disable Windows update before the surgery.
(Score: 3, Touché) by mcgrew on Sunday January 30 2022, @06:07PM (1 child)
I really doubt that the robot's OS is anything by Microsoft.
Impeach Donald Palpatine and his sidekick Elon Vader
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31 2022, @04:29PM
-nomsg
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Sunday January 30 2022, @06:40PM
Last time I had surgery, it was to excise a stomach cancer. It was done through a remote-controlled machine that went in through my esophagus (not a vein or artery). It cut out the cancer and stitched the stomach wall back together again.
I was home the same day. Uneventfull day surgery.
Or so I thought.
A few days later, and I woke up gasping for breath. I thought sleep apnea, breathed and went back to sleep. Woke up again gasping for breath. My wife, who was a doctor, called 911. The ambulance put me on oxygen.
Ended up in the hospital where they had done the surgery. Turned out some of the stitches performed by the remote-control machine had come loose and I was bleeding into my stomach. I had lost enough blood that there wasn't enough left to carry oxygen to where it needed to go. That's why I ended up gasping for breath.
I got a few tranfusions and a gastroscopy or two. The bleed managed to heal naturally and they monitored me for a week. Went home again, no more problems.
I was told to come back for a stomach checkup in a year. That never happened because the pandemic intervened.
So if they manage to do robotic surgery on pigs without trouble later, my hat is off the them.